


Brotp at Christmas

by akire_yta



Series: prompt ficlets [517]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Brotp, Gen, prel enables me too much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 03:51:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 2,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13138491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: prel gave me a stack of brotp seasonal prompts, so piling them all in togetherpart one: brotp vs caroling





	1. Chapter 1

“Fair warning, Gordon is kind of  _insane_  about Christmas.”

Penny glanced up from her paperwork, and John wondered if Gordon knew that she wore glasses when she was home alone.  “How insane are we talking here?”

“He’s been humming Christmas carols since Thanksgiving.  The tree is already up.  To be honest, I think a part of him still believes in Santa Claus.”

Penny paused and licked her lips.  “I did agree, didn’t I?”

John beamed at her.  “Pinky promised and everything.”

“And did you tell him…?”

John’s grin took on a manic edge.  “What, and take from you the pleasure of watching his little face crumple at your pitch perfect Scrooge routine?  Why Penelope…” he laid a hand over his heart, a picture of wounded.  “Do you think me that cruel?”  He began backing away, never taking his eyes off her.  He’d been her best friend too long to fall for that trick again.  “Also, because I am a kind and loving best friend, fair warning.  His favourite is  _Baby It’s Cold Outside_.”

He was laughing as her head thunked loudly against her fine, polished wood desk.

 * * *

Gordon in snow was pink cheeked and grinning. He had a steaming mug of what Penny darkly suspected was eggnog in her hands.

John, bless his heart, had shoved a paper cup of tea at her and gave her an excuse to wave his offer of a taste away.  “Hey hey, Pen, guess what.  It’s Christmas!”

“In fifteen days,” Penny muttered.  Behind Gordon, John rolled his eyes and nodded emphatically.  John always was the reasonable one, but right now they were deep in enemy territory, surrounded by Santaphiles.

Gordon was too excited to notice her sly asides, too busy pointing out the ridiculous reindeer ears that Virgil was wearing with what seemed a fraying good humour.

Penny let him vibrate away into the crowd before she stepped smartly to John’s side.  “Please tell me you have some…ah, bless,” she sighed as John produced a silver flask and tipped a generous slug of whiskey into her tea.  “How long does this go?”

“However long, Gordon will want to stay to the end.”  Penny’s groan turned a few nearby heads.  John smiled winningly at them until they turned away.  “Do you remember that second Christmas in Oxford, where we got stuck at that party?”

“That dreadful one with no alcohol and the caroling…oh!”  Penny lit up like the big tree in the centre of the square.  “Darling, if we try that little stunt here, we might very well get lynched.”

John tapped his paper cup carefully against hers.  She suspected it was whiskey that had had the Starbucks menu read to it, based on the glow in his cheeks and the gleam in his eye.  “Lynched people don’t have to freeze their asses off singing stupid songs to make the sun come back,” he argued in counterpoint.  Penny hesitated.  “The first song on the list is Jingle Bells Rock,” he added.  “And I  _know_  you still know the unauthorized version.”

“Darling,” Penny stepped in close, voice pitched only for him.  “How do you think poor Gordon would take the two of us, at the start of his favourite holiday, singing “suck on my cock” instead of “jingle bell rock”?”

“Consider it payback.”

“He’s only been sweetness and light to me.”

“Fine,” John said, topping up both their cups.  “Consider it pre-emptive payback.”

Penny hesitated again, but her toes and fingers and nose were all already freezing.  “Only if we can talk Virgil into joining us,” she counter-bargained.

John winked, and Penny wondered how much of that flask he’d already had.  “Virgil  _and_  Scott are already in.”  He looped his arm around her, tucking her in tight against the windchill.  “Besides, you told me he was pretty when he blushed.”

Penny sighed and sought out Gordon in the crowd.  She found him trying to balance a Santa’s hat on a pair of felt reindeer ears, and her heart hardened.  “You’re terrible,” she scolded John, butting her head gently against his shoulder.

“He’s got a pair of elf ears for you.”

She plucked the flask out of his pocket.  “Then I’m in.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BROTP VS GINGERBREAD HOUSE

Parker followed the sounds of an argument all the way to the kitchen.  “Structural integrity is important!”  It was the loudest he had ever heard Master John, who was usually an ethereal presence trailing after his other brothers whenever they visited the Manor.

He’d honestly thought that he’d not hear a peep out of his charge and her young friend for a good hour or two.  He’d even poured out a drink to savour, before the yelling had dragged him down the hall to the bright and airy Manor kitchen.

Master John and her young Ladyship were both stood on kitchen chairs, braced on the table as they tried to glare each other down over the cooling racks.  For all that they were twelve years old, the air between them was almost crackling with the intensity.

“What’s all this, then?” he asked, arms folded.  He’d learned the hard way never to let her Ladyship take the lead when she’d been caught up to mischief.

“Mr Parker, would you please tell Penny that if she wants that kind of roof, and that much icing on top, she’s going to need flying buttresses.”

Penelope’s mouth was compressed into a thin line.  “Gothic is ugly, and has no place in my kitchen.”

Parker could tell they were at an impasse.  He reached between them and snatched up a piece of gingerbread, biting down before they could protest.  “I was always rather fond of Spanish Colonial meself.”  He grinned at their dual looks of architectural horror.  “Easy windows to gain access through.”

Flying buttresses were forgotten as Parker pulled a chair out and helped them build some gingerbread models to use as the basis for a lesson in basic B&E tactics.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BROTP VS SNOWBALL FIGHTS

“Where are they?”  Scott looked hunted as he scanned the snowline.

“Where are who?” Gordon asked, packing down another ball and adding it to his stack of ammunition.

“Penny and John?” Virgil said, glancing around their impromptu trench like somehow they’d missed spotting two people in a space barely larger that Four.  “Shit, where’d they go?”

Gordon sighed and dusted snow off his beanie.  “Probably back up to the farmhouse to drink coffee in the dry.  John’s a weakling,” he added, loyal to Penny to the last.

Virgil and Scott swapped a look.  “You had a broken leg last time we were here, didn’t you?” Scott breathed.

“You didn’t play snowball fight with them last time, did you?” Virgil added, sounding almost haunted.

“What’s the big deal?” Gordon asked, brow furrowing.

Scott took him by the shoulders.  “They play to  _win_ ….”  It was the last thing he said before a rumbling sound filled their trench.

Fifteen seconds later, Gordon unscrewed his eyes and patted the flurries away from his face.  He was buried up to the bottom of his ribcage, Scott and Virgil up to their hips.  They were pinned in place.

A figure blotted out the sun.  “Out there it’s eggnog and sing-songs,” John said, face cast in shadow.

“But here,” Penny added, voice pitched low.  “There’s only us and the snow.”

Gordon was rewarded for his laughter by two hard-packed snowballs directly to the face.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BROTP VS EGGNOG OPINIONS

Penny stuck out her tongue, face screwed up in disgust.  “What she said,” John added without even looking up from his newsfeed.

“Et tu, Pen?” Gordon asked, aghast, dreams of noggy kisses going up in flames.

“Darling,” Penny soothed, stroking his cheek.  “Egg. Nog.  Even the name is unappealing.”

“But not as unappealing as the taste,” John added from his spot in the peanut gallery.  “Or the texture, ick.”

“Thank you, brother, but this is a private conversation,” Gordon hissed over at him.

“Oh, that texture is the  _worst_ ,” Penny said, like Gordon hadn’t spoken.  “Though, I had to admit, there used to be these caramels you could get when I was a child, I rather enjoyed the eggnog flavoured one of those.”

John put down his tablet with an audible thump and glared at Penny.  “Oh no, no no no no.  Not you too.  I expect you to be the voice of reason.”

Gordon knew that smirk of Penny’s.  It meant she was about to reel a guppy in.  But John was obviously too upset to see what was right in front of him.

It was so rare to see John get played.  Gordon settled back with his tall glass of eggnog to enjoy the show.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BROTP VS MISTELTOE

Alan was a  boy on a mission.  This alone would not be cause for concern.  But Alan had made a friend.

That his friend was Penny’s Aunt Sylvia meant everyone should have been worried.  But in the loud press of the crowds that was the Creighton-Ward Christmas party, no-one noticed one small boy darting back and forth between mischief and the dowager figure enthroned by the fire.

Sylvia’s eyes were drawn to her niece, once again in the company of that gangling, offensively ginger boy who seemed to keep all proper suitors at bay with a cold smile.  That he hadn’t left her niece’s side all evening was a fact that had not escaped notice.

Something had to be done.   Her new protege seemed up to the task.

Alan knew his target well; he didn’t give them time to prepare a strategy, electing instead to pop up leaning out over the banister to wave the mistletoe over their heads in clear view of everyone.  “MISTLETOE TIME!” he yelled. to ensure all eyes were on them.

He was expecting John to baulk.  Sylvia was expecting Penny to give him a sweet, chaste kiss on the cheek.  The entire room, or at least the parts that knew one or both of them expected eyerolls and put-upon sighs.

No-one was expecting Penny’s single raised eyebrow of challenge.  They definitely weren’t expecting John Tracy to sweep her around into a perfect dip before kissing her full on the lips.  He set her on her feet again to a smattering of startled applause.

Sylvia and Alan were watching closely, as the room turned back to their conversations.  As such, they saw Virgil collecting what were clearly bets from several corners of the room.  And they saw Virgil then saunter over to the couple and quietly slip them half the takings.

“Well played,” her young protege murmured from where he’d appeared beside her.  “That was well-played.”

Sylvia laughed, and took his arm, and began to steer him through the crowd to one of her other, younger nieces.

They could do with meeting a smart young man like Alan.  And Penny obviously had her life well in hand.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TWIST!!! TINY!BROTP VS CHRISTMAS CARDS

“You’ve got mail!”  Jeff watched John leap down the stairs almost two at a time to collect the creamy envelope that was at the top of Jeff’s mailbag that morning.  “Who’s it from?”

John smiled.  “It’s a Christmas card. From Penny.”

He was gone again, scampering up the stairs before Jeff could enquire further.  He frowned, and glanced at the calendar in the kitchen to be sure it was still only February.

He didn’t see the envelope for March; his private secretary told him that John had come to the office in person to collect it himself.  The next envelope arrived on April first, and Jeff wondered if perhaps it was just an ill-timed joke.  But then one arrived in May, and another in June.

December first came and went without a white envelope.  “John, is everything okay with Penelope?” Jeff asked, knocking lightly on the doorframe to his son’s room.

John was sat in his desk chair, but turned to frown at his father.  “Yeah, why?”

“No card,” Jeff said gently.

John looked baffled.  “Of course not.  I’ve got all the clues.”  He tapped what he was working on with a single finger.  “Now,” he added with real delight.  “I just have until the 24th to figure out what they mean!”

Jeff squeezed John’s shoulders as he came to stand behind his son, looking down at the 11 cards arranged in some hidden order in front of John.  “It’s a puzzle?” he asked.

John nodded, and under his palms Jeff could feel John almost vibrating with excited.  “She said she didn’t want to get me socks again, that she wanted to get me something I’d really like.”  John leaned forward, almost going to his knees on the chair to push higher.  “I think I’ve nearly got this figured out.”

“Can I help?”

John beamed up at him.  “Thanks.  But you really need to be us to get it.”

Jeff wasn’t sure what he was feeling, but he roughed up John’s hair anyway with an affectionate pat.  “Well, offer’s open, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”  He paused in the doorway, looking back at his son poring over cryptic clues sent by a girl he only saw but once a year.  Smiling to himself, Jeff quietly closed the door behind him.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BROTP VS CHRISTMAS SHOPPING

“Why didn’t you do this earlier?”

John’s glare was broken by the buffeting of the crowds.  “Because I work in  _space_?” he said, sounding exasperated.

Penny clung onto his arm to stop herself from being swept away by the tides of people.  “Have you heard of online shopping?” she asked archly.

John scowled.  “I did that one year.  Grandma  _knew_  somehow.  She’s very against picking presents out of a catalogue.  Very again,” he added, pulling her in as the tides tried to pull them apart.

“Next year, we’re starting in November.”

“We said that last year.”

“October then,” Penny shot back, spying a gap in the crowds.  She shoved John ahead.  “Or better yet, let’s just buy two of everything and be done for next year too.”

John was laughing as she shoved him into the nearest shop.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BROTP VS SANTA CLAUS

“It’s weird without the beard.”

“The beard itches,” John hissed back, wiggling for a moment before he started down the last flight of stairs.  “Also I’m fairly sure this pillow is going to make a run for it.”

“Don’t you dare,” Penny hissed.  She looked far too fierce to be a delightful elf from Santa’s workshop.  Green suited her.  “It’s bad enough you’re not wearing the beard.”

John rolled his eyes but focused on keeping the sack on his back and the pillow under the jacket balanced with him as the fulcrum.  “No-one’s ever going to see us, so why are we even bothering?”

Penny poked him.  “You never snuck out of bed to catch a peek at Santa?”

John smiled despite himself.  “Mom used to take us outside to show us the reindeer tracks in the snow,” he remembered.

Penny let him have the moment before touching his arm, bringing him back to their present mission.  Outside, the snow was above the doors, but the building was designed for it, an entire village’s worth of children tucked up safely on ever bed and scrounged mattress, waiting out the storm.

How Penny had talked him into actually coming down the chimney, even he still wasn’t sure about.

They worked quickly, in relative silence, arranging rescued presents until the underside of the tree was packed, colourful parcels spilling onto the carpet.

Once they were done, they stepped back a moment to appreciate their handiwork.  Penny tucked in against John, and he let his head fall to rest lightly against hers.  “Merry Christmas,” she murmured.  “Every one of us.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BROTP VS CHRISTMAS CRACKERS

“John is wearing a jaunty paper hat.”  Kayo couldn’t believe the evidence of his eyes.

“Yup,” Alan said, lounging on the sofa, full of delicious food, and sleepily trying to work out how to fly the drone he got from Brains for Christmas.

“Why is John wearing a jaunty paper hat?” Kayo was staring, working at the problem like she might a sore tooth.

Alan frowned then yelped delightedly as he got the tiny motor started.  “Because Penny is magic?” he tried.

“Penny got him into a paper hat?” Kayo asked, shocked.

“Well, first she made him trade with her, as she got a blue one and he got a pink one, and she thought the blue clashed with her outfit.”  Alan cheered as his drone lifted up and began to hover. “But yeah, into a paper hat.”  He groaned as his drone settled back down on the couch cushions above his head.  Alan tipped his head back and considered the problem from upside down. “Then she got him to tell her the joke in his.  And he laughed at it.” 

Kayo had to sit down.  There was a crunching noise.  “Oh,” Kayo cursed.  “Sorry Alan.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BROTP VS AULD LANG SYNE

“You’re singing it wrong!”

“How am I singing it wrong?”

“You need to be…more Scottish.”

John rolled his eyes.  “I’m from Kansas. I technically can’t do  _more_  Scottish because I am emphatically  _not Scottish_.”

Penny opened the bottle of whiskey with a practiced twist of her hand and filled his glass up to the brim.  “Well, get that into you and I guarantee you’ll sound Scottish.”

“No I won’t, because I’ll be  _dead_.”

“Weak.  Also not Scottish either.  Drink, sing, welcome in the new year with me.”

John shook his head, but picked up his glass.  “Why are we friends?”

“Because I have the whiskey.”

“Ah,” John breathed.  “Yes.  Of course.”  He carefully tipped his glass to her.  “Happy New Year, Pen.”

“And to you, darling.”  She took a swig.   “But you’re still singing Auld Lang Syne with me.”

His groan could be heard from across the room.  But a few moments later, his voice lifted in song with hers.  “ We’ll take a cup o'kindness yet, for auld langs syne.”

And the bells chimed in the new year.


End file.
